4.

Fruit syrup and Juice processing plant

Local bottlenecks

The melon subsector is hampered by high costs in transport and lack of value addition. This is
causing the following:

• Value addition and packaging: “Absence of professional processing services and no varied
packaging”. This is leading to high losses from spoilage (during transport and from melon fly)
in transporting only fresh melons.

“The Solution”: Business Co ncept:

The factory will extract and process melon into concentrate, syrups and juice. Other fruit products
will be added to the line. The syrup has to be bottled for sales in local market and/or export market.
The juices will have to be packaged into carton tetra packs for direct sales at local markets.

Management: TBD

(a) Services

Melon processing.

(b) Organisational model

Factory setting.

(c) End products

Concentrate / syrup / Juice.

(d) Estimated employment

50 people.

Economic Viability

Market for syrup is not clear. Market for concentrate is not high volume. Juice would require cold
storage and large scale facility.

Subsector Analysis and Business Plan Development / North & NE /Economic Viability & Technical Feasibility Dec 07 46
i. Investment required:

Overall investment is substantial, even if low-cost extracting and processing equipment can be found,
because packaging has to be added.

• Land: 2 jeribs (see Appendix 1), and building for such a processing unit is indicated to cost
>150,000 USD.

• Depends on the availability of low-cost extracting and processing equipment (above 300,000
USD as indicated by Kabul businessmen)

• Bottling line

• Packaging line: 32,000 USD

• Generator: 50,000 USD

• Cold Storage: minimum of 90,000 USD

• Above budget

ii. Operational budget

• Raw materials24 and additional supply, that will need to be imported (other fruit)

• Packaging material

• Electricity/fuel

• Salaries

Technical Feasibility

i. Technical Assistance Required

• Management Support

• Access to finance

• Marketing/BDS Training

• Technical Training

ii. Technical resources

• Melons. Only seasonal. Processing will have to take place immediately to prevent perishing.

24
Please refer to SWOT for total quantities and Appendix 2 for district breakdown of supply.

Subsector Analysis and Business Plan Development / North & NE /Economic Viability & Technical Feasibility Dec 07 47
• Electricity: (see Appendix 1).

• Skilled labour: for operating equipment are not there. Labourers have to be trained to learn to
follow strict hygienic procedures.

• Availability of other ingredients.

• Equipment: available in China, India, TBD with experts

Other consideratio ns

• The business concept would only work when other fruit syrups, concentrate or juices will be
added.

• Factory environment may not be suitable for (remote based) women (see Appendix 1).

• Electricity may not be reliable (see Appendix 1).

• Largely seasonal business between July and November.

Constraints

• Limited access to export markets (flying is too expensive).

• Occurrence of melon-fly in raw materials

Preliminary analysis / impact

Employment: 50 people / based on team estimation.

Involvement of women: Women can be directly employed in the factory.

Marketing channels: Improved product will diversify links to higher grade buyers.

Rural incomes: Local people will be involved in the factory. Farmers’ income will also increase
indirectly, as market-mechanism will strengthen their position to negotiate prices with the buyer,
when demand for almonds increase and production levels stays the same.

Industry: Increased income for entire subsector, as added-value will increase the price of the end-
products and end-products can be sold throughout the season, generating additional income
throughout the year instead of seasonal. New products may also have the ability to reach new
markets, while avoiding product loss during transportation and high transportation costs of raw
melons.

Subsector Analysis and Business Plan Development / North & NE /Economic Viability & Technical Feasibility Dec 07 48